July 2028: five full weekends and a total eclipse
Dispatch, Thursday 20 July 2028. The Games opened six days ago in Los Angeles, and the month still owes the sky one large favour. July spans Saturday 1 to Monday 31 July, 31 days of it. The month holds five Saturdays, five Sundays and a fifth Monday parked on the last day. The Olympic closing ceremony lands on Sunday 30 July. Two days after this dispatch, on Saturday 22 July, the new moon swings across the sun. Our correspondent has counted the weekends twice. There are five, complete and unbroken.
Two eclipses in one month
The sky opened its account on Thursday 6 July, when a partial lunar eclipse shared the full moon's night. It was a rehearsal with the brightness turned down. Last quarter followed on Friday 14 July, the very day the Games opened an ocean away.
The main event arrives on Saturday 22 July, at new moon, inside the month's fourth full weekend. Totality tracks from the Kimberley through Tennant Creek, Dubbo and Bathurst to the whole Sydney basin. The shadow then crosses the Tasman to Queenstown and Dunedin. Sydney last stood under a total in 1857; this one will run about 3 minutes 45 seconds over the city.
Rooms along the path sold out long ago, and the cheaper beds ended up in Dubbo, Bathurst and Dunedin. First quarter closes the lunar month on Friday 28 July, with Olympic tennis finishing the same day.
Finals first, flame second
The finals stacked up before the flame. The Euro 2028 final was played at Wembley on Sunday 9 July. The United Kingdom and Ireland had hosted that tournament since 9 June.
The Tour de France set out from Reims on 24 June. Its traditional finish on the Champs-Élysées came three weeks and a day later. Wimbledon occupied Monday 3 to Sunday 16 July.
The Los Angeles Games opened on Friday 14 July and close on Sunday 30 July. The opening ceremony used two stadiums, SoFi Stadium and the LA Memorial Coliseum. Week one belongs to athletics and week two to the pool, a first for a Summer Games. Flag football and squash are debuting, and cricket is back for the first time since 1900.
Olympic tennis runs from Wednesday 19 July to Friday 28 July on hard courts in Carson. The turnaround after the Wimbledon final is three days. Circle Saturday 22 July on your copy first; the rest of the month arranges itself around it.
The July ledger
Saturdays fall on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th. Sundays follow on the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th. Mondays complete the set on the 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays stop at four each.
That is five full weekends, 10 weekend days and 21 business days, across weeks 26 to 31. August will run heavier; that problem can wait.
July 2028 spends its fourth weekend on the sky and its fifth on a closing ceremony. The 21 business days in between mostly behave themselves.